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THE POSITION OF 
THE BOHEMIANS 

(CZECHS) 

IN THE EUROPEAN 
WAR 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

Bohemian National Alliance in America 

2613 S. Avers Ave.. Chicago, III. 



BOHEMIAN (CZECH) NATIONAL ALLIANCE 
IN AMERICA. 



Tlie Bohemian National Alliance in America is 
an organization composed of the ' ' Sokol ' ' gymnastic 
societies, of the principal Czech fraternal organiza- 
tions, of social clubs and labor bodies. It has branches 
in most of the larger cities of the United States, as 
well as two branches in Canada. It is entitled to speak 
for the 540,000 Bohemians in the United States. 

The Bohemian National Alliance is working 
actively for the freedom of Bohemia, an object which 
is bound up with the success of the Allies. It opposes 
the false neutrality tactics employed by Germans 
living in the United States, particularly their efforts 
to stop the expQrt of munitions of war. 

••• : . 

With the Bohemian National Alliance in America 

are affiliated * similar organizations of Czechs living 
in London, Paris and Switzerland. 

Mr. Josef Tvrzickj'-Kramer, 2613 S. Avers Ave., 
Chicago, 111., is the secretary of this Alliance. 



THE POSITION OF 
THE BOHEMIANS 

(CZECHS) 

IN THE EUROPEAN 
WAR 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

Bohemian National Alliance in America 

2613 S. Avers Ave., Chicago. III. 



By transfer 
Tli«iniite ttouse. 



1^^!;? 
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WHY THE BOHEMIANS ARE NO 
FRIENDS OF THE GERMANS 



The terrible war raging in Europe has at 
least taught the people in America to take a 
little interest in European geography. They 
have no difficulty now to find the Dardanelles 
on the map, and even the location of such ob- 
scure provinces as Flanders, Tyrol, Galicia or 
Bukowina is no longer a secret to the average 
newspaper reader of Canada and the United 
States. But as to the races inhabiting the little 
known countries of Eastern Europe there is still 
a good deal of confusion. It is safe enough to 
call a man born in France a Frenchman; and a 
man who was born in Germany is most likely 
German, though he might be a Pole or an Al- 
satian Frenchman or a Dane. But to know that 
a man comes from Austria does not in itself give 
the slightest indication as to the man's race or 
as to his sympathies with one or the other camp 
into which Europe is at present divided. For 
Austria, or rather Austria-Hungary, as the ally 
of Germany is officially known, is not a nation 
in the sense in which Great Britain or France or 
Italy or even Germany is a nation. Austria is 
not a nation, but rather a queer jumble of eleven 
nations or fragments of nations unwilling and 
unable to co-operate and held together only by 
force of arms. 



If the Hapsburg empire was based on a 
united people like the rest of the states of Eu- 
rope, it would not be such a negligible factor 
in the councils and on the battlefields of Eu- 
rope. For both in area and in population Aus- 
tria exceeds most of the better known great 
powers. In area it is second only to Russia, in 
population it takes the third place, after Rus- 
sia and Germany, having 49,211,727 people, ac- 
cording to the census of 1910. In other words 
Austria-Hungary is twice as, large as the British 
Islands and contains four million more inhabi- 
tants. And yet notwithstanding its size and its 
resources in men and money, Austria would 
have been overrun by the Russians long ago, if 
Germany had not come to its assistance. Aus- 
tria cannot do its share in the present war, be- 
cause a large majority of the inhabitants do not 
want Austria or Germany to win. 

It is difficult for an American, from which- 
ever side of the international boundary he may 
be, to realize the extent of the misrule to which 
the races of Austria had been subject for cen- 
turies. Austria is an anachronism, a medieval 
survival in the twentieth century. The political 
principle on which the dual monarchy rests is 
this : the minority rules. For many generations 
the German minority, represented by the Haps- 
burg emperors, tried to force the German lan- 
guage upon all of the Hapsburg possessions, but 
after all the German element was in such a small 
minority that in 1867 they reluctantly gave up 
this ambition and reached an agreement with 
the Magyars to divide the empire into German 
and Magyar spheres of influence. The part 



left to the tender mercies of the Germans kept 
the name of Austria, while the share of the Mag- 
yars is known as Hungary. Both races were and 
are in the minority in their respective territories, 
but they have worked together as loyal partners 
to keep down and eventually destroy the na- 
tional life of the other nine races of the empire. 
Today of the fifty million Austro-Hungarian sub- 
jects it is the German and Magyar element, num- 
bering twenty million, that really wants the 
German side to win; the other thirty million, 
Bohemians, Croatians and Servians, Poles, Ru- 
thenians, Slovaks and Slovenians, Italians and 
Roumanians, realize full well that German tri- 
umph would mean oppression ten times worse 
than before the war, and that the German pol- 
icy of ''f rightfulness," so brilliantly exhibited in 
Belgium and France, would, be applied to those 
who might still have the temerity to refuse the 
boon of German Kultur. The race that would 
suffer the most, the race that has the worst to 
fear in the unlikely event of German victory, is 
the race generally known as Bohemians, or in 
their own language, Czechs. 

The northwestern corner of Austria con- 
sists of the lands of the ancient Bohemian crown. 
There is first the kingdom of Bohemia with 
20,223 square miles and nearly seven million 
inhabitants. To the east lies the Margravate of 
Moravia with 8,583 square miles and 2,600,000 
people, and still further east is the small duchy 
of Austrian Silesia with 1,987 square miles and 
three-quarters of a million people. The Aus- 
trian official census, which is notoriously partial 
to Gerni^n claimg, found 64 per c^ftt of the pop- 



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ulation using the Bohemian language, while the 
rest gave German as their conversational me- 
dium. In Austria every man who speaks Ger- 
man in his business dealings and does not in- 
sist on being put down as a Bohemian, is entered 
by the census enumerator as a German. The 
fact is that for more than a thousand years the 
Bohemian lands have been a bone of contention 
between the Slav and the Teuton. The Czechs, 
a Slav race, occupied the country in the fifth cen- 
tury of our era and gradually erected a power- 
ful kingdom. But on three sides they were sur- 
rounded by German lands, and the Germans 
tried again and again, sometimes by fire and 
sword, sometimes by peaceful penetration, to 
conquer the country and make it a part of 
greater Germany. The Czechs held their own 
until they committed a fatal blunder in the year 
1526, when they elected a Hapsburg to be their 
king. The Hapsburgs were German princes, 
aliens in blood, language and manners to the 
people who chose them for their rulers; their 
policy has been such that in 1618 the people 
arose in revolt, were defeated two years later 
and lost their independence. Since that time 
Bohemia and the lands of the Bohemian crown 
have been mere provinces of the Hapsburg 
realm, governed from Vienna, the guiding prin- 
ciple of the rulers being the extermination of the 
Bohemian language and individuality by the 
killing of rebels, exiling of nonconformists, sup- 
pression of Bohemian books, education of Bo- 
hemian children in German schools and the set- 
tlement of Germans in the country. For a time 
it looked as if this policy would be- crowned with 



success, and a hundred years ago only peasants 
used the Bohemian language. The Germans 
thought that Bohemia was theirs. But a miracle 
happened, and in the first half of the nineteenth 
century a number of men, gratefully remem- 
bered by every Bohemian as the restorers of the 
nation, reawakened the national consciousness 
in the hearts of the people. When the era of 
absolutism passed away in Austria, the young 
emperor, Francis Joseph, was confronted with 
the problem: how to treat the Czechs of Bo- 
hemia, Moravia and Silesia, who demanded the 
right to live not merely as individuals, but as a 
people. 

The emperor decided that Austria must re- 
main a German state ; the Slavs must be com- 
pelled to become Germans. If they are so ob- 
stinate as to refuse the light of the German Kul- 
tur, they must be extirpated. The history of the 
last fifty years — the era of the so-called consti- 
tutional government — is a record of oppression, 
juggling with constitutional safeguards, manipu- 
lation of elections, centralization of power in 
Vienna, confiscation of Bohemian newspapers, 
persecution of Czech leaders, forcible German- 
ization of Bohemian minorities in German cities ; 
in fact every means has been employed to make 
the Bohemians feel that they are an inferior 
race and that sooner or later Bohemia must be- 
come a German-speaking country. The world 
has only recently come to know the incredible 
arrogance, the brutality, the ruthlessness of Ger- 
mans engaged in their mission of spreading the 
''culture." It is a proof of the intense vitality of 
.the Bohemian pe.ople that in spite. of the steady 

8 



oppression applied to them with characteristic 
German thoroughness they have held their own. 

In foreign politics Bohemians were always 
opposed to the Triple Alliance and the close re- 
lations with Germany which the two dominant 
races, Germans and Magyars, favored. Czech 
representatives in the Vienna Reichsrat and in 
the Austro-Hungarian delegations denounced 
the vassal relations which Austria assumed 
toward Germany; they opposed appropriations 
for larger army and the ambitious plans for ter- 
ritorial expansion in the Balkans at the expense 
of the Balkan Slavs. When Austria annexed 
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, Bohemian 
newspapers unanimously condemned the act as 
a breach of treaties and a menace to the peace 
of Europe. French and English visitors to 
Prague received an unusually cordial welcome 
from the Czech mayor and councillors ; with the 
Russians the most friendly relations had always 
been maintained. Servian and Bulgarian stu- 
dents flocked to the University of Prague, be- 
cause they saw in Bohemians their friends. At 
the Sokol gymnastic meet in Prague in 1912 Rus- 
sian, French, Servian, Bulgarian, Croatian ath- 
letes engaged in friendly competition with Bo- 
hemian Sokols (falcons). It was but natural 
that Bohemians should lean toward those who, 
like themselves, were threatened by German ag- 
gression. 

War came, caused by Austria's act, though, 
of course, with the full knowledge and approval 
of Germany. It placed the Bohemians in a ter- 
rible situation, for they were not for one moment 
deceived as to the real significance of the war. 

9 



It was waged to make Germany supreme, not 
merely on the Continent of Europe, but in the 
whole world, and the first result of German vic- 
tory would be the suppression of what little free- 
dom had been allowed to the Austrian Slavs up 
to that time. By fighting for Austria Bohemian 
soldiers were fighting against their own people ; 
by shooting Russians and Servians, upon whom 
the Czechs had always looked as brothers, they 
were killing their own liberators. The men of 
Bohemia had to put on the hated uniform and 
shoulder guns, for resistance to mobilization 
would have been madness, but they added little 
strength to the fighting ability of the Austrian 
army. The last thing they heard as they were 
leaving Bohemia was the exhortation of their 
wives : Don't shoot the Servians. From the very 
first days of the war stories got through of Bo- 
hemian regiments being decimated for insubor- 
dination, refusal to fight, premature surrender- 
ing. The 28th regiment, composed of Prague 
boys, surrendered to a single battallion of Rus- 
sians, and the 11th regiment, from Pisek in Bo- 
hemia, went over to the Russians in a body with 
the exception of two companies. A special or- 
der of the day was read to the Carpathian army 
calling on the soldiers to prove that there were 
still Bohemians left loyal to their emperor. But 
why should Bohemians be loyal to the man who 
calls himself a German prince, who broke his 
solemn promise to be crowned king of Bohemia 
and restore the liberties of the country, and 
whose Germanizing regime was growing more 
oppressive, as he was growing older? Every 
Bohemian honors the soldiers who would not 

10 



fight for the cause which meant the destruction 
of the Bohemian nation. 

At home in the meantime Czechs were 
made to feel that they were a disloyal race. 
Their newspapers were suppressed if they dared 
to give the slightest indication of the real feel- 
ings of the people. The chief political leaders 
were put in prison; great numbers of men who 
recklessly expressed their hope that the Allies 
would win were executed; even children were 
sent to jail for the crime of talking as they heard 
their parents talk at home. A reign of terror 
prevails in Bohemia under the new governor, 
Count Coudenhove ; spies are everywhere, and 
military courts require little evidence, before 
they condemn to death or penitentiary. The 
whole population is affected by the scarcity of 
food, for the Vienna government permitted Ger- 
many last winter to buy up grain in Bohemia, 
and if the Czechs eat now what was formerly fed 
only to the pigs and cattle, they get little sym- 
pathy or assistance from their rulers. 

Bohemians living beyond the limits of the 
German-Austrian territories are of one mind 
in that they all fervently pray for the triumph 
of the Allies. A number of Bohemians prom- 
inent in the political life of their people escaped 
to Switzerland and they endeavor to inform the 
w^orld of the real attitude of the Bohemians. _ A 
review is published in Paris, called *'La Nation 
Tcheque," giving authentic and exclusive news 
of the internal situation in Austria-Hungary and 
presenting forcefully the claim of Bohemia to 
independence. Bohemians living in France, 
England and Russia at the outbreak of the war 

11 



clamored for admission as volunteers into the 
armies of the Allies; several hundred of them 
have already lost their lives in the fights north 
of Arras. Bohemians residing in the United 
States and numbering more than half a million, 
have organized themselves into the Bohemian 
National Alliance in America with the purpose 
of supporting their countrymen in Europe in 
their labor for Bohemian independence, and also 
with the purpose of combating German influ- 
ences in the United States. That they are unani- 
mously against Austria may be seen from this 
single fact: The Austrian government has pro- 
hibited the admission into Austria of sixty-three 
newspapers published in the United States in the 
Bohemian language. The list is practically a 
complete census of Bohemian publications in 
America ; if there is one or two left out, it is an 
oversight on the part of the Austrian officials. 

Tragic is the situation of the Bohemian 
race, compelled to fight for their enemies against 
their brothers. And a tragi-comedy it is, when 
a Bohemian living abroad, in France, England 
or Canada, is treated as an enemy, because he 
had the misfortune of being born a subject of 
the Austrian emperor. The French have been 
enemies of the Germans only since 1870. The 
English have only in the last few years begun to 
feel uneasy at the aggressiveness, commercial 
jealousy and military preparations of the Ger- 
mans. In Russia almost up to the beginning of 
the war Germans were influential in the highest 
places. Should the Germans win, which God 
forbid, Great Britain, France and Russia would 
suffer terrible humiliation, immense losses of 

12 



territory and wealth, but these free nations are 
too strong to be suppressed and exterminated. 
Whereas to the unfortunate Bohemian race, 
standing in the way of German expansion to the 
East, would be applied the German war methods 
and it would not be long before the Czechs 
would disappear from the face of the earth and 
the Bohemian language would be counted as 
one of the dead languages. Bohemians have 
everything to lose in the event of German vic- 
tory, everything to gain in the event of the tri- 
umph of the Allies. Can there be any doubt as 
to where the Bohemians stand in the present 
war? 



13 












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BOHEMIANS (CZECHS) FOR AMERICA 

AND 

AGAINST AUSTRIA 



The Austrian Government in a recent note 
addressed to the Government of the United 
States, in effect demanded an embargo upon the 
shipment of ammunition and arms from the 
United States. This demand, which is absolutely 
inconsistent with international law, as well as 
the practice, both past and present, of the Aus- 
trian, as well as the German Government, has 
been followed up by a report to the effect that 
the Austro-Hungarian Government contemplates 
following up its note to the American Govern- 
ment with the scheme of mobilization of Ameri- 
can Austrians and Hungarians, of whom there 
are six millions in the United States, so as to in- 
terfere with the manufacture of war materials. 

The time has come for former subjects of 
the Austro-Hungarian Government to emphati- 
cally and unequivocally declare that they are 
utterly opposed to the Austrian Government in 
its demand for an embargo upon the shipment 
of arms and ammunition, and that the threat 
alleged to have been made as to the mobilization 
of former Austrian subjects, and Austrian resi- 
dents of the United States, is the sheerest sort of 
insolence and impudence. 

16 



The Bohemian National Alliance of Amer- 
ica feels that it can speak in behalf of all Amer- 
ican residents and citizens of Bohemian (Czech) 
and Slav extraction; and speaking in behalf of 
such residents, the Bohemian National Alli- 
ance declares that it is utterly and absolutely 
opposed to any embargo upon the shipment of 
arm.s and ammunition. American citizens of 
Bohemian extraction are convinced that any em- 
bargo upon the shipment of arms and ammu- 
nition would be a highly unneutral act and that 
it also would be wrong in morals; that as a 
matter of fact such a step would be tantamount 
to an act of hostility against the governments 
and nations engaged in war against the aggres- 
sion of German and Austrian Governments. 

The Austro-Hungarian authorities seem to 
forget that there is no such thing as an Aus- 
trian nationality. The Bohemians (Czechs), un- 
fortunately enough, are still under the iron heel 
of Austro-Hungarian absolutism, but they are 
not in symipathy with the aims of these govern- 
ments in the present war, and the American cit- 
izens of Bohemian extraction are only too glad 
to have severed all ties that have ever bound 
them to the Austrian Government. Indeed, the 
Bohemian papers of America carry now a stand- 
ing proclamation of the Bohemian National Alli- 
ance to all Bohemian residents in the United 
States to become as quickly as possible natural- 
ized citizens of the United States, and thus to 
rid themselves of the odium which Austro-Hun- 
garian citizenship in their minds carries. 

When the Austro-Hungarian authorities 
speak of the mobilization of their former citi- 

17 



zens living in the United States, they wilfully 
close their eyes to the fact that the majority of 
the Austro-Hungarian population is entirely 
out of sympathy with the desires of such govern- 
ment, and with German desires. The Germans 
in Austria and Hungarians in Hungary form a 
minority of the population of these lands, and 
they are the only ones who desire an Austro- 
Hungarian victory, and even they desire such 
victory not out of regard for Austro-Hungary, 
but the German residents in Austria desire it as 
Germans, while the Hungarians, the descen- 
dants of Huns, and the present allies of the 
German Kaiser, desire it for their own selfish 
ends, and in order to be further able to oppress 
other nationalities resident in Hungary; but 
even on their part there is no love for Aus- 
tria, and no respect for its incompetent and cor- 
rupt rulers. 

The history of Austria for the last four hun- 
dred years is a record of unparalleled and un- 
equalled oppression of all non-German and non- 
Magyar nationalities. The hands of the Haps- 
burgs even now are dripping with the blood of 
Bohemian martyrs condemned to death and ex- 
ecuted simply because they had the courage and 
moral backbone to refuse to fight for a govern- 
ment much worse in many respects than that of 
the worst oriental despotism ever could be. It is a 
fact that many Bohemian regiments in the Aus- 
trian army have been decimated and dissolved 
because the Bohemians will not fight for the 
cause of the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns. 

The Bohemian (Czech) residents of Amer- 
ica, and American citizens of Bohemian extrac- 

18 



tion, have observed the requirements of neutral- 
ity, both in letter and spirit, although they ar- 
dently sympathize with the allies in their strug- 
gle for democracy and the rights of small na- 
tionalities, but they feel they would be derelict 
in their duty as men and citizens, did they not 
now protest against the machinations of the 
Teutonic allies in America, and did they not 
emphatically declare that when the Austro- 
Hungarian authorities speak of mobilization of 
Austrians and Hungarians in America, they cer- 
tainly must exclude from their calculations citi- 
zens of Bohemian extraction and Bohemian resi- 
dents of America. Indeed, they must exclude 
the Italians who have been unfortunate enough 
to be Austrian subjects and they must exclude 
all Slavs, who have shared with the Bohemians 
the misfortune of Austrian rule. 

As a matter of fact, at this time, and for 
the very reason that the Bohemians desire this 
country to remain at peace with all the world, 
we want to warn the Austrian Government, the 
German Government, and their satellites in 
America, that by their intrigues, which may yet 
lead to ^ rupture between those two govern- 
ments and the United States, they may achieve 
the very opposite of their aims. As already in- 
dicated, neutrality has been observed by the Bo- 
hemians, and it will be observed in the future, 
but the Austrian and German governments must 
remember that if the laws of neutrality and the 
moral obligations, imposed upon residents of the 
United States by such laws, ever are suspended, 
Bohemians and Slavs and Italian residents in 
America will flock by the thousands to the 

19 




FRENCH HIGH OFFICIALS TRANSFERRING f 




^lAN BANNER TO CZECH VOLUNTEERS. 



standards of the allies voluntarily, in order to 
share in the struggle against world dominion 
planned by the Governments of Berlin and Vi- 
enna, and if ever such a thing happens as war 
between America and Germany and Austria, 
which we hope may be prevented, Bohemians 
and former subjects of the Austrian Govern- 
ment will flock by the thousands to the Ameri- 
can standard and beneath the Star Spangled Ban- 
ner, and they will furnish the American Govern- 
ment more than a few regiments of trained men 
willing and anxious to die for the rights of hu- 
manity and for the cause of liberty, justice and 
independence, as the European Bohemians 
(Czechs) have furnished many thousands of men 
to France and Russia. 

The Bohemians have always been a demo- 
cratic and liberty-loving nation. We owe our 
allegiance to this country. We are willing and 
anxious to observe its laws, and to observe the 
spirit of its laws. We would do nothing to em- 
barrass the president in his policy of keeping 
the country out of war, but if war does come, 
we shall do our part in the struggle to maintain 
the dignity and standing of the United States 
before the nations of the world, and w^e shall 
demonstrate that no one resents more the Aus- 
tro-Hungarian threats and Austro-Hungarian in- 
trigues in the United States than do the former 
subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Government. 

In passing, we desire to say that we are not 
making this declaration as hyphenated Amer- 
icans. There are no Bohemian-Americans. 
There are American citizens of Bohemian 
(Czech) extraction, as proud of their ancestry 



as the descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims; 
but we owe no divided allegiance and we stand 
as a unit in our desire to see America as pros- 
perous and peaceful as possible, and in this re- 
gard we shall spare no sacrifice and no step 
necessary to uphold the hands of those repre- 
senting the people of the United States. For 
that reason we thought it necessary to make this 
declaration, and to declare as firmly as possible 
that w^e resent the pretensions of the Austro- 
Hungarian authorities to any support in America 
from former Austro-Hungarian citizens. 

BOHEMIAN NATIONAL ALLIANCE 
OF AMERICA, 

Joseph Tvrzichy, Dr. Ludvik Fisher, 

Secretary. President. 



Resolution of Protest Against the "Appeal to 
the American People" 



Full page advertisements, in the form of an 
''Appeal to the American People," have been 
published lately in the American newspapers 
with the intention of embarrassing the govern- 
ment of this republic in its attitude of strict neu- 
trality, and of artificially creating public sen- 
timent in favor of a course of action injurious to 
the best interests of the country. 

The ''Appeal" was signed by newspapers 
whose publishers did not understand the real 
intention of the document and did not read its 
full text. Their signatures were obtained by 
false pretences. 

It is true, no doubt, that this action failed 
wholly to achieve its aim, but since the manifest 
— an advertisement pure and simple and paid 
for as such — was misinterpreted, intentionally or 
unintentionally, in the columns of some Central 
European newspapers, into an expression of the 
feelings of the foreign born citizens of the 
United States, 

We, the representatives of the great part 
of European immigrants in America, deem it our 
duty solemnly to declare that: 

24 



We emphatically deny the assumption that 
the export of munitions of war violates in any 
way the neutrality of the United States, ob- 
served heretofore with the most conscientious 
regard to international law. If the delivery of 
German arms to Mexico during the American 
occupation of Vera Cruz, when this country 
was in armed conflict with Mexico, was no vio- 
lation of neutrality, neither is the present com- 
merce in munitions of war a violation of neu- 
trality on the part of the United States. 

We condemn severely this hypocritical agi- 
tation, because it is plainly intended to secure 
to Germany and Austria permanently the ad- 
vantage of their long continued preparation for 
war and thus to handicap the allies whose indus- 
tries had not been devoted to the building up 
of tremendous armaments. 

As loyal American citizens and residents, 
we endorse the principle of free export of all 
our products, agricultural and industrial, includ- 
ing the munitions of war, a principle long rec- 
ognized by international law and followed in 
many instances by the very same powers at 
whose instigation the so-called ''Appeal" has 
been published. 

We express our complete confidence in the 
government of this republic for its careful and 
correct attitude as the one great neutral power, 
and we repudiate most emphatically the im- 
moral and hypocritical campaign conducted 
against countries that defend violated Belgium 
and fight for the right of small nations to a sep- 
arate existence and unhampered development. 

25 



Bohemian National Alliance of America, Chicago, 

111., by Dr. Ludvlk Fisher, president. 
Bohemian Press Association, Chicago, Hi., by 

J. F. Stepina, president. 
Press Bureau of the Bohemian National Alliance, 

Chicago, 111., by J. Tvrzicky-Kramer, president. 
Bohemian- American Press Association, New York, N. 

Y., by J. J. Novy, president. 
Croatian League of America, Chicago, 111., by Don 

Niko Grskovic, president. 



Slovak Daily ''Narodny Slovensky Dennik, " Chi- 
cago, 111., by M. Lancik, editor. 

Narodnie Ncviny, Pittsburgh, Pa., official organ 
of the National Slovak Society of America, by 
Ivan Bielek, editor. 

Slovak New York Daily, New York, N. Y., by 

Ignace Gessay, editor. 
Slovensky Hlasnik, Pittsburgh, Pa., by E. Stan- 

koviansky, manager.. 
Slovak Daily /'Narodny Dennik, Pittsburgh, Pa., 

by Michael Sotak, president. 
Easmus B. Anderson, Madison, Wis., editcr ''Ame- 

"!rica" Danish Weekly, former professor Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, former U. S. minister 

to Denmark. 
John R. Palandech, Chicago, 111., publisher of 

''United Serbian-Balkan World." 
Stanislav Osada, general secretary of the ''Polish 

National Council," and manager of "Free 

Poland", Chicago, 111. 
Zdislav John Rakowiecki, Chicago, 111., editor of 

the Polish Alliance Daily "Zgoda." 
"Italo- Americano," New Orleans, La. by A. Vinti, 

editor. 

26 



BOHEMIAN DAILIES: 

Svornost, Chicago, 111., by August Geringer, 

publisher. 
Denni Hlasatel, Chicago, 111., by Vladinnr Spatny, 

manager. 
Hlas Lidu, New York, N. Y., by F. Anis, manager 
New Yorske Listy, New York, N. Y., by C. Frank, 

manager. 
Svet, Cleveland, 0. 

BOHEMIAN WEEKLIES : 

Slavic, Chicago, 111., by Ladislav Tupy, publisher. 
Osveta Americka, Omaha, Neb., by Jan G. Rosicky. 
Pokrok Zapadu, Omaha, Neb., by Vaclav Bures, editor. 
Slovan Americky, Cedar Rapids, la., by W. Letov- 

sky, editor. 
Cedar Rapidske Listy, Cedar Rapids, la., by Fr. 

Hradecky, publisher. 
Rovnost, Milwaukee, "Wis., by E. A. Krai, publisher. 
Domacnost, Milwaukee, Wis., by Ant. Novak, 

publisher. 
Nasinec, Hallettsville, Tex., by Ant. Stiborik, editor. 
The Tabor Independent, Tabor, So. Dakota, by 

J. A. Dvorak, editor. 
St. Louiske Listy, St. Louis, Mo., by L. Novak, 

publisher. 
Cechoamerican, Baltimore, Md., by Vaclav Miniberger, 

editor. 
DomacI Noviny, Clarksou, Neb., by Anton Odvar- 

ka, editor. 
Pacificke Listy, Oakland, Cal., by A. V. Omelka, 

manager. 
Westske Noviny, West, Tex., by August E. Morris, 

editor. 

27 



BOHEMIAN MONTHLIES : 

Vek Eozumu, New York, N. Y., by John Sevclk, 
editor. 

Eorec Americky, Chicago, 111., by K. -Yinklarek, 
editor. 

Sotek, Chicago, 111., by K. Yinklarek, editor. 

Vestnik Jednoty Taboritu, St. Louis, Mo., by Frank 
Siroky, editor. 

Nove Smery, Chicago, 111., by Jos. Trojan, publisher. 

Stanley Serpan, editor of Yestnik Zap. Ceskobratrske 

Jednoty, Omaha, Neb. 
Dr. J. E. S. Yojan, editor of Organ Bratrstva, C. S. 

P. S., Chicago, 111. 



28 




COAT OF ARMS OF BOHEMIAN CROWN. 



BRITISH, FRENCH AND RUSSIAN COM- 
MENTS ON THE ATTITUDE OF 
THE BOHEMIANS 



In the London ''Daily Express," January 12, 
1915, Lieut. Col. Roustam Bek says in an article 
entitled "British Recognition of Czechs' Friendli- 
ness" : 

"Every Englishman who has had an oppor- 
tunity to study the unfortunate position of the 
Czechs, the unjust system by which they are gov- 
erned by Austria, and the centuries of brutal 
oppression and Germanizing policy they have 
had to endure, will easily understand why their 
sympathies are entirely and sincerely for the 
Allies. 

"Belonging to the same Slav race as Rus- 
sians and Servians, they expect their deliverance 
and the restoration of their ancient independent 
kingdom of Bohemia through their Slavonic 
brethren, as well as through the success of their 
British and French allies. 

"Austria declared war against the wish 
and will of its Slav subjects. Already more than 
a year ago the Bohemian Diet was dissolved and 
military rule established in Bohemia. The Aus- 
trian Parliament was not summoned, in order to 
deprive the Czech deputies of their immunity, 
fearing their justified protests against the war. 

"A London Czech committee has been ap- 
pointed to represent the Czech colony in Eng- 
land and officially recognized by the Home 
Office and Scotland Yard authority, in order to 
assist them in all matters regarding the Czechs." 

32 



The editor of ''National Review," L. Y. 
Maxse, writes: 

"In the course of operation against the ob- 
scure, hardships were probably inflicted. It is 
among the fortunes of war that harmless peo- 
ple suffer, and apart from many rightly in- 
terned there are not a few only technically 
''alien enemies," miscellaneous subjects of Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary, who hate our en- 
emies more heartily than we do : for example, 
Austrian Czechs." 

Mr. James Baker, well-known author and 
journalist, says in the November "Outlook" : 

"Bohemians (Czechs) have assisted us in 
this war by their organization, by their refusal 
to fight, and by their numerous surrenders to the 
Russian and Serbian armies. It is a difficult 
question, this specializing the alien friend or foe, 
but surely those who are sacrificing themselves 
for us should not be treated as alien enemies, 
and Bohemians (Czechs) are our friends." 

Professor Ernest Denis of the Sorbonne Uni- 
versity, Paris, says in the "Slav-American Corre- 
spondence" : 

"Czech language was persecuted, their cul- 
ture scorned, their schools closed, their literature 
oppressed, their press censored and confiscated, 
their economical progress stopped. Crushed by 
taxes, sacrificed for the interest of Austria, they 
were left without defence when Momsen and the 
heralds of Prussianism insulted their most sacred 
sentiments. Bohemia will find again her- role, 

33 



which destines her to be the joining link be- 
tween the western and eastern Europe, and the 
apostle of liberty, justice and humanity." 

Mr. Ziukovsky, Russian consul at Prague, 
on his return to Petrograd, declared : 

'The Czechs did not conceal their joy when 
Russia sided with Serbia, but there were terrible 
scenes when the men entrained. I, with my own 
eyes, saw soldiers forcibly placed in the cars at 
the point of the bayonet. The trains to the front 
were decorated with greenery, but the soldiers 
and the crowd were silent." 

Mr. R. J. Kelly, K. C, Dublin, writes in the 
November "Outlook" : 

'^Circumstances are presenting the Czech 
nation from openly assisting us. This long-op- 
pressed people have been too long under the 
heel of German oppression. They wish well to 
the Slav cause, for it is their cause, and pray for 
the speedy, complete and enduring success of 
the Allies." 

MoHs. Camille Saint-Saens, the famous 
French composer, writing in the ''Echo de Paris" 
on October 23, 1914, mentions several Czech 
composers who are dear to French music lovers, 
and remarks: "France has no better friends 
than the Czechs." 

Mr. Walter Jerrold, in the "Pall Mall Ga- 
zette," October 26, 1914, writes: 

"The Czechs, too long victims of Germaniz- 
ing- methods, are among the bitterest of anti- 

- 34 



Germans, for they have long known the true 
inwardness of German Kultur, and the fact that 
as many as possible are serving in the Russian 
and French armies should serve to make our 
authorities utilize those who are in our midst. 
The strenuous stand of the Czechs against ab- 
sorption in the Germanic system of Austria, 
which they detest, is one of the heroic rom.ances 
of modern history, and all who know it, who are 
aware of how deeply heart and soul are these 
people with the Allies in the present struggle, 
should make themselves heard in helping those 
Czechs at present in England. '^ 

The London ''Spectator" has an editorial 
in its issue of July 3, 1915,, entitled John Hus, 
from which the following is taken : 

"For a thousand years the Teuton has 
struggled in different ways to dominate the land, 
to capture her (Bohemia's) church, her schools, 
her freedom and her soul ; and for a thousand 
years the Czech has continued the unequal re- 
sistance. Though the old Bohemian kingdom, 
has disappeared, Bohemian nationalism still sur- 
vives. We may therefore regard it as one of 
history's little ironies that the quincentenary of 
the martydom of the leader of Czech nation- 
alism (John Hus) in its struggle with the Ger- 
man enemies falls wdthin the year that witnesses 
the supreme eifort of Teuton Kultur to domin- 
ate, with the assistance of conscript Czechs, not 
only the Czech and Slav, but the whole of Eu- 
rope." 

35 






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36 



The ''Contemporary Review" for July, 
1915, says in an article on ''Bohemia and the 
War," by M. J. Landa : 

"Bohemia is the unwilling conscript among 
the combatants, linked by press-gang methods 
to her traditional foe, from whom she can ex- 
pect nothing. A Germany, flushed with victory 
and the mandate it would mean to suffocate all 
individuality under a carpet of Kultur, raven- 
ous also for the world-power then within its 
clutch, would show even more vindictive lust 
than it did in the Middle Ages, to exterminate 
the Bohemian nation that stands in its path to 
the Adriatic. And, conversely, the Allies, if 
triumphant, will secure no peace in Central Eu- 
rope until the gratitude and friendship of the 
Bohemians are obtained by the re-establishment 
of their kingdom and national life." 

Even before England entered the war, the 
Czech colony in London made the following pub- 
lic protest against Austria on the 3rd of Au- 
gust, 1914: 

Manifesto of the Bohemians (Czechs) iii 

London 

We, Bohemians (Czechs) residing in Lon- 
don, assembled in Hyde Park, on the British 
soil of freedom, consider it to be our sacred 
duty to give the impartial and broadminded 
British public a manifestation of our true na- 
tional sentiments. 

We condemn the unjustified and cruel pol- 
icy of the Austro-Hungarian Government 
against the little Serbian nation, as an action 

37 



of a coward, with the dastardly object of exter- 
minating the people of Serbia. 

By refusing to allow an international com- 
mittee to investigate the crime of Sarajevo, and 
to find the real accessory of this, the quick dec- 
laration of war, and the bombardment of the 
defenceless city of Belgrade, shows clearly the 
most inhuman aim of Austria and Germany not 
to give the peaceful statesmen like Sir E. Grey 
and others sufficient time to intervene for peace. 
We all know that Austria, instigated by Berlin, 
was thirsting for the war with Serbia, because 
she is in the way of the Pan-German expansion 
towards the East. 

Further, we deplore to see how our coun- 
trymen are forced under penalty of death to 
fight against our Slavonic brethren. We have 
facts that there is no enthusiasm in Bohemia, 
only cries of despair, lamentation and tempo- 
rary resignation. 

Under such dreadful conditions we would 
consider it an inexcusable crime against our na- 
tion and all Slavonic brethren to join the hated 
Austrian ranks and support their unjust cause 
directed against the friendly nations. 

But, on the other hand, should this country 
be involved in war, then as true Bohemian pat- 
riots, obeying the voice of our conscience, we 
shall be glad, with other citizens, to do our real 
duty to this country, and, if required, givo our 
lives for the hospitable shores of the Eltish 
Empire. 

Long live the Triple Entente. 

BOHEMIAN COLONY ^N LONDON. 

38 



On the first day of war, August 5, the Lon- 
don Czech Legion for British Service was 
formed, of which Mr. E. Sully, N. P. R. S., officer 
of French Academy, etc., etc., was elected hon. 
secretary. One hundred and five Czechs sent 
in their names and addresses, through Admiral 
Lord Charles Beresford, to the War Office, of- 
fering to serve for the British, in any capacity 
and for rations only, during the war with Ger- 
many. 

In the influential Russian newspaper, 
"Bourse Gazette," June 8, 1915, it is said in an 
article on the recent political history of Aus- 
tria: 

''The Czech leader, Kramar, opposed the 
Triple Alliance strenuously upon all occasions. 
He declared in plain terms in the Austrian dele- 
gations in 1913 that Bohemia can support the 
foreign policy of the government only when 
Austria will not be a tool of aggressive Ger- 
many. The immense majority of the Czechs 
were far from friendly to the Hapsburg mon- 
archy; on the contrary they manifested plainly 
their sympathies for Russia." 

K. J. Grof, a well-known Russian historian, 
has this to say about the relations of Bohemians 
to the rest of the Slavs : 

"The Slavic world is under many obliga- 
tions to the Czechs ; they have been the advance 
guard for long centuries, resisting successfully 
the attacks and the constant aggression of the 
Teutons, holding high the standard of their ra- 
cial individuality. They are entitled to the 
greatest praise for their work on behalf of 
Slavic brotherhood, and if any Slavs are now 

89 



to get the reward of their long efforts, it is the 
Bohemians. The time has eome to rescue them 
from the oppression of their ancient enemy and 
give them their longed-for fredom and inde- 
pendence.'' 

C. F. Wyn writes in the London Morning 
Post, April 3, 1915, as follows: 

"Of the various kingdoms swayed by the 
sceptre of the House of Hapsburg, that of Bo- 
hemia is perhaps less known in England than 
any other. It is, indeed, only quite recently that 
it has been possible for Englishmen to acquire 
any knowledge of Bohemia from other than 
German scources, and as racial warfare between 
the Slav and the Germanic race is the keynote 
of Bohemian history, information derived from 
hostile scources would be as useful as a bi- 
ography of Earl Kitchener written by a German 
professor. ... 

'In the new Europe which is about to be 
born the Czechs also desire their place in the 
sun. They desire to restore and to maintain 
their national individuality and to remain Slavs, 
as they have always been." 



40 



SOME AMERICAN AND ENGLISH BOOKS 
ON BOHEMIA. 

Count Lutzow: Bohemia (Encyclopedia Britannica). 

Count Lutzow: History of Bohemia. Everyman's Li- 
hrSiTy, London 1910. 

Count Lutzow: Story of Prague. Medieval Town 
Series, J. M. Dent. London 1907. (2nd ed.) 

Count Lutzow: The Life and Times of Master John 
Hus. J. M. Dent. 1909. 

Count Lutzow: English translation of: The Lahy- 
rint of the World and the Paradise of the Heart 
by John Amos Komensky. J. M. Dent. 1905. 

Count Lutzow: A History of Bohemian Literature. 
London. (2nd ed. 1907.) 

Baker James : Pictures from Bohemia. Chapman and 
Hall. London- Chicago 1894. 

Balch Emily G. : Our Slavic Fellow Citizens. New 
York 1910. 

Gregor Frances: The Story of Bohemia. Cincinnati 
and New York 1896. 

Maurice Charles Edmund: The Story of Bohemia 
(Story of the Nations Series). New York and 
London 1896. 

Monroe Will S. : Bohemia and the Cechs. L. C. Page. 
Boston 1910. 

Schaif S. David: John Hus after 500 Years. Chas. 

Scribner's Sons. New York 1915. 
Schwarze W. N. : John Hus, the Martyr of Bohemia. 

Fleming H. Kevell. New York 1915. 

Vickers Robert H. : History of Bohemia. Chicago 
1894. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



BOHEMIA 
^ under Hapsburg I 

A Study of the Ideals and As 
hemian and Slovak Peoples 



021 394 207 4 

ai3^ xim^xoij^jvi \j\j cj/iivj. 



Affected by the European War. 

Edited by THOMAS CAPEK. 

Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1915. 



Contents: 

I. Have the Bohemians a Place in the Sun ? 

.... Thomas Capek 

II. The Slovaks of Hungary Thomas Capek 

III. Why Bohemia Deserves Freedom 

. . . .Professor Bohumil Simek 

IV. The Bohemian Character. .Professor H. A. Miller 

V. Place of Bohemia in the Creative Arts 

. . . .Professor Will S. Monroe 

VI. The Bohemians and the Slavic Regeneration. . . . 

. .Professor Leo Wiener 

Addenda. The Bohemians as Immigrants 

Emilv G. Balch 



For sale at all booksellers or order from the 
Bohemian National Alliance in America, 

J. Tvrzicky-Kramer, Secretary, 
2613 S. Avers Ave., Chicago, 111. 



